Lab director says Trump claims virus escaped ‘pure fabrication’; fears of US second wave as states relax restrictions for start of summer
The virology lab in Wuhan, the city at the heart of the outbreak, was working on three live strains of bat coronavirus, but none of them match the one that has caused the Covid-19 pandemic, its director has said.
Wang Yanyi, the director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN that the closest genetic match to the virus spreading around the world was only 79.8%, adding that claims made by US president Donald Trump and others that the virus could have leaked from the facility were “pure fabrication”.
She said: “Our institute first received the clinical sample of the unknown pneumonia on December 30 last year … We didn’t have any knowledge before that, nor had we ever encountered, researched or kept the virus. In fact, like everyone else, we didn’t even know the virus existed. How could it have leaked from our lab when we never had it?”
The attempt by the laboratory to refute the claims is nevertheless likely to add more fuel to theories that the coronavirus pandemic came from a lab in Wuhan.
The scientific community has largely rejected theories that the virus came from a lab but the origins of the illness have become increasingly political as questions of accountability have begun to strain China’s diplomatic relations.
Washington has accused China of being responsible for the pandemic and countries like Australia have called for an independent investigation into the causes of the outbreak.
Trump and US secretary of state Mike Pompeo previously claimed to have a “significant amount of evidence” proving the virus came from a lab but Pompeo later backed away from that claim. He said earlier this month in an interview with Breitbart: “We know it began in Wuhan, but we don’t know from where or from whom, and those are important things.” The interview with Wang comes as China has begun to hit back against accusations it is to blame for the pandemic. On Sunday, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi called on the US and China to work together and condemned “some politicians who ignore basic fact and make up countless lies and conspiracy theories concerning China”.
Public health experts and residents in the US fear a second wave of coronavirus infections as it opens up for summer, just days away from the grim milestone of 100,000 Covid-19 deaths.
The New York Times marked the looming threshold with a front page listing nearly 1,000 Covid-19 death notices, gleaned from hundreds of US papers. The headline spoke of an “incalculable loss”.
Globally there have been more than 5.3 million cases, and 342,000 deaths. The US accounts for more than 1.6 million of those cases.
Trump has previously said the US would see fewer than 100,000 deaths, a claim in contrast to 12 models the CDC uses. Deborah Birx of the White House coronavirus task force has repeatedly asserted the number of deaths by 1 June will be between 100,000 and 240,000 – if mitigation strategies continue.
The Memorial Day long weekend has begun in the US, and every state has relaxed its restrictions to some extent, with many flocking to beaches and outdoor areas on Saturday, snarling roadways and forcing some closures.

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